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Published: November 21st 2006
Mossman Gorge
The cold swimming hole.After Magnetic Island I moved onto Cairns where I spent a nice evening with some distant relatives. This is the second time on my trip I've made contact with people from this family and it has been really enjoyable both times. The one thing I've noticed as a backpacker stuck in the backpacker world, is that it's difficult to meet many locals. My bus stop in all the typical touristy towns and I've been doing the tourist activities. This has given me less opportunities to stop at a say a coffee shop on the side of the road where I would stand out as a a strange person and could strike up a conversation with someone who lives there. Visiting with this family has not only given me the opportunity to have a home cooked meal and conversation with people who have a connection to me, but it has also taken me inside the homes and lives of true Australians.
I spent two nights and one day in Cairns, mostly wandering around the shops. The following day I went north of Cairns to a beautiful spot called Cape Tribulation which is known for its rainforests. I did a couple of
Flying to Alice Springs
View of the outback from the air. walks through the rainforest and saw some interesting things. My first walk was guided and we were introduced to green ants. The guide said that you're supposed to pick them up (without killing them) by their heads and stick their rear end on your tongue. It sounds disgusting, so weird and at first I thought "why would someone want to do that?" But then I thought "meh", while in Australia and decided to give it a try. It tasted so strongly of lemon that it stung my tongue a bit...if I had to give it a name I would call it "lemon spike". This probably isn't something I would do again but I'm glad I gave it a shot.
Over the next few days I decided not to worry too much about what I was seeing. Instead I relaxed by the pool and visited with people I keep running into, including the couple that I toured Magnetic Island with on the Moke. It's a bit scary because we never plan it but we see each other everywhere.
On the bus ride home we stopped at a place called Mossman Gorge for a swim in the swimming hole. The water was really cold but nicely refreshing compared to the bath water they call the ocean here. I made a very clumsy jump off a rock that was about a third of the height we jump off at home. After this I vowed to make sure my feet were not slippery before depending on them as take-off gear.
Today I flew from Cairns to Alice Springs and spent the day wandering around town. The first thing you notice about Alice is the heat, it's 40C in the shade. I'm told when I go to Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock it will be 50-55C. I'm praying it's possible for my body to adjust to the heat in one day but that might be a long shot.
The second thing I noticed about Alice were the aboriginals. There were little kids everywhere and unfortunately they all looked pretty dirty and scruffy. It was actually a very desolate sight and tugged at my heart strings a bit. Later in the day I was in a store and heard a commotion outside which turned out to be a fight between an aboriginal man and woman. Luckily it was strictly a verbal fight but there were times when I though it might be more.
Other than that Alice Springs is a very nice little town. Every store I went in people seemed to know each other which gave it a real feeling of being a community. Tonight I'm not going to get up to much because I'm leaving on a 6 day tour at 5:15 in the morning.
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Aunt Kathy
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Heather you are truly becoming an intrepid traveller! Note: intrepid: fearless, adventurous. Origin: Latin intrepidus 'not alarmed'. That's you! I remember a saying: 'A tourist sees what she goes to see; a traveller goes to see what she sees'. You are very brave. It is an amazing experience to strike out on your own trusting your instincts and knowledge. I'm so glad this is working out for you. We are all here behind you and with you. Thanks for the wonderful journal entries and photos, although I'm not so comfortable with it all perhaps planting the seeds of travelling in my young girls' minds!